Our Story
Hello, I’m Gabriela Solano, but I go by Gaby, and my close friends call me “Gabz,” and I'm the owner and founder of GabzNGlitz Events.
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From a young age, I have always appreciated the craft and beauty of details and design, thanks to my mom. I had grown up in a small, modest household with limited resources, but my mom always knew how to make our apartment a home by bringing in beautiful thrifted decor with her eye for detail. Even though my family and I never hosted parties growing up, I remember the birthday dinners we shared. It was the way my mom styled our kitchen table and created a beautiful ambiance with her chargers, napkins, and goblets that sparked my lifelong love for tabletop design.
In 2015, while attending college, I began working at the Costco membership desk, where I was given incredible opportunities, including an internship, that helped shape my growth throughout my early twenties. I also met my now-husband during my freshman year, and we got married in the summer of 2021. Throughout my college and Costco years, I found myself in a place where I was waking up every day just to go through the motions of a corporate job that no longer fulfilled me. I was simply existing and not living through purpose or passion. During these hard times, I often thought about what else I could do as a career, but nothing felt worth leaving a stable income. I later on leaned into what I loved: planning and styling my friends' parties and events. What began as a side hustle became a passion. I thrived on planning events for my friends, and I even styled every detail of my wedding. Then, in early 2023, that's when everything changed.
My coworker at Costco, Sarah, got engaged, and I took that as a hint to put myself out there, and I offered to design her wedding. Graciously enough, she agreed to give me my first official opportunity. The very moment that would then lead me to my life-changing prayer.
I began planning Sarah’s wedding, scouting for venues, which led me to come across a hidden gem called “CRC Ranch”. When I visited the venue, I came in with confidence and introduced myself to the venue’s event manager​​, Tracey. By God’s grace, she allowed me full creative control of the wedding and let me bring in my own vendors. Once I knew Sarah and her mom loved and approved of the venue, I stepped in to negotiate, something I’ve always been great at. I secured the best price without using any of the venue’s in-house resources, knowing I could source everything affordable on my own. I left Tracey intrigued, and that same night she called and asked where I was getting my inventory from. I told her I owned it, even though it had only been a few items from previous hosted parties, but nothing to a professional level. She proceeded to ask me to bring her a sample of my inventory, because she was looking to move away from large corporate rentals and toward smaller businesses so she could work more closely with them. I knew in that moment that my prayers had been answered. I rushed home and told my husband, “ We’re using our house savings and investing it. We are opening a rental business”. Without hesitation, he said, “Okay, I trust you, we put our dreams on hold for my dreams, now it’s time to focus on yours”.
Just like that, my life changed in one day. I went from struggling to finding a purpose in life to not having enough hours in the day. Once Tracey approved my sample, she rented a full set of standard wedding inventory, and within a week, GabznGlitz Events was officially open for business. I had taken a leap of faith and opened my business, bought an entire set of wedding inventory, sorted all the legal paperwork, and started working out of my parents' garage, using their old minivan to make this dream happen.
For the next year and a half, I hustled, learned, and evolved to help my business grow. I was still working at Costco full time throughout this whole process, while handling wedding drop-offs, set-ups, and styling meetings on my day-offs. Every opportunity and extra time I had throughout the day allowed me to grow this dream of mine. In 2 short-hardworking years, I paid our house fund back, we got pregnant, bought our first home together, I quit my corporate job, and built incredible vendor relationships. Through God’s perfect timing, he sent me Tracey and Sarah, and through them, several doors began to open.
A pivotal moment in my journey came from a bride who believed in me. Jeniffer Sevilla. She gave me complete creative control and freedom to design her wedding tablescape. I reinvested all of my earnings from her wedding to upgrade my “standard” inventory. This wedding made me realize I didn't just want to offer the basics, I wanted to provide specialty items too. I wanted glamorous, stylish details like the Kylie Jenner parties I lived for, but without the designer price tag.
Later in 2024, I met another incredible bride: Lauren. She challenged me creatively and trusted me even when my portfolio lacked the type of style she wanted. Her wedding helped me grow my specialty inventory and taught me so much about adapting and evolving with different brides and styles.Thanks to amazing brides like Jennifer and Lauren and supporting vendors, planners, and venues, I’ve been able to grow into who I am today. I will forever stay true to myself and remember where I started. I will never forget the day that a vendor said, “I can hear the spark plugs on your van”, even though, as old and noisy as it was, that van was the one that helped me get here today.
At GabzNGlitz Events, our mission is to help as many brides as we can, whether it's just a napkin rental or a fully curated tablescape. We believe beautiful weddings should be accessible through my unique and inclusive, but also affordable inventory. No one should have to sacrifice their Pinterest dreams.
Thank you to every person who has supported me (us) on this long journey. I'm so excited for the future: launching this website, finding our dream warehouse, adding specialty chairs to our inventory, working in dream venues, and finally buying that dream iron for our linens, along with so many other blessings.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart for being part of this dream! I truly wouldn’t be here without you!